NK relocates escapees’ families to concentration camps

North Korea is said to relocate to a controlled area the families of North Korean escapees living in the border area with China, potentially creating another human rights wasteland separate from its notorious concentration camps.

Sources on North Korea said Friday that the relatives of escapees in Hoeryong, North Hamkyong Province, who were selected for expulsion left for South Hamkyong Province Thursday, adding some 300 households will be expelled from Hoeryong soon.

Those subject to the forcible relocation were confirmed by North Korean authorities as relatives of North Koreans who defected to South Korea. In addition, the North is investigating families with missing members to see if they defected to the South, reportedly sending investigators to Hoeryong Tuesday.

Those expelled from Hoeryong are known to be headed for a farm cooperative in Kumya County, South Hamkyong Province, where barbed wire fences, guard posts and guards barracks were built last year to block access to and from the outside.